Carl W. Kenney II is an award winning columnist and novelist. He is committed to engaging readers into a meaningful discussion related to matters that impact faith and society. He grapples with pondering the impact faith has on public space while seeking to understand how public space both hinders and enhances the walk of faith.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Stacy Dash lives in a place called "clueless"

Stacy Dash wasn’t among the many who became instant Jesse
Williams fans after his speech at the BET Awards.

"That chip on the shoulders of people like you will
weigh you down and keep you from flying free," Dash wrote in a blog post.
"But true freedom is never free. You have to know how to fly. If anyone is
making you feel this way it's you. Living in a psychological prison of your own
making. If anyone is GHETTO-IZING anyone, it’s people like you letting the BETs
and other media outlets portray us in stereotypes."

It is another example of Dash making comments that match the
television show that made her a celebrity. Some say she’s clueless.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again: BET is
keeping racism and segregation alive and this past Sunday's awards show proves
it," the 49 -year-old said of Williams’ speech. "Particularly the
speech given by Grey's Anatomy star Jesse Williams, whose tirade after
receiving the 2016 BET Humanitarian Award for his black activism was nothing
short of an attack on white people."

Dash has a way of standing on the right side of the
conservative right. It’s hard to believe Damon Dash’s cousin has
resorted to promoting Donald Trump and attacking any black person who screams “Black
Lives Matter”. OMG, what about the white people?

This coming from a woman who began her career as the
superfine model in Carl Thomas’ and Kayne West’s music videos. Hate saying it,
but we liked her better when she showed more and said less. Slap me for the
sexist remark, but can someone remind Dash that she personified what objectification
looks like?

"You’ve just seen the perfect example of a HOLLYWOOD
plantation slave!" Dash continues. "Sorry, Mr. Williams. But the fact
that you were standing on that stage at THOSE awards tells people you really
don’t know what your [sic] talking about. Just spewing hate and anger."

Insert the image of white people offering a standing ovation.
You go girl! Where do we send the check? There’s more. Dash claims Williams is
the one getting paid.

"You my man are just like everyone else hustling to get
money," Dash writes. "But your cognitive dissidents has you getting
it from THAT BYSTANDER whom YOU DON'T NEED. Yes. BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION
is WHITE OWNED."

Dash was responding to one of the more powerful lines in
Williams’ speech.

"The burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the
bystander. That's not our job, all right? Stop with all that," Williams
said. "If you have a critique for the resistance, for our resistance, then
you better have an established record of critique of our oppression. If you
have no interest -- if you have no interest in equal rights for black people,
then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down."

That was the moment that shifted the stage into a pulpit and
landed everyone in the crowd on their feet. It was that transcendent occurrence
that black Americans have been waiting for since BET sold-out to imagines of
women showing their goodies to lyrics about their being bitches and a ATM
machine.

It was a come to Jesus moment that reminded black people
that stuff is happening in places like Ferguson. It happened after we saw stuff burning on the
stage while rappers spitted lyrics that require a few double-takes to
understand.

Bump that! Yo, it’s time to get past the cognitive
dissonance regarding the deaths of black people. Williams was talking to those
in the room. In doing so, he whipped their ass for failing to move beyond the
conflicting messages reflected in some of their music. He challenged them to
consider the madness caused by the disparity many of them represent.

Yo, what you gonna do with your success? What does it mean
for you to show up, get your 40 acres and two mules while black folks are
getting shot down like it’s target practice at the OK Chorale? Excuse the
grammar lapse, because that ain’t OK.

Williams was making a statement about the music we make and
the distance created by those who refuse to show up when the body count rises. He
was reminding us of the radicalism that took place back in the day when people,
with all shades of black, were denied what they deserved to be paid. He was
reminding all of us that we have a right not to be killed.

There’s nothing to debate when it comes to what Williams
said. Right?

Surprise, surprise. Leave it up to confused black people to
find a reason to dispute a common sense moment. Let’s make a list.

Williams is not black enough. I mean, look at his mama. Oh,
why does it take a light skinned, almost white negro to get folks to listen?
You know, he has to be light-skinned to assert credibility. It’s the old
argument regarding shades of credibility, or this black person means more than
the other.

Bruh, this ain’t Sesame Street. When it comes to racism, all
of these things belong with the other. Proving blackness based on the concentration
of melanin a person carries fails to acknowledge a simple truth. Racist don’t
apply the brown bag test. It only takes one drop of black blood to end up on
the wrong side of privilege.

Maybe Dash failed to get the memo. You know, the one signed
by all the people who said “Nigger” behind her back. That memo that list all
the times doors were locked when she showed up in search of an
opportunity. Or, maybe her curves and
good looks were enough, in the minds of some, to create space for her to walk
in places denied the women who didn’t fit he G-string.

OMG, stop talking about white people! Really. I mean, really
though!

There must be a special place reserved for black people who
condemn other blacks for doing the heavy lifting.

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Carl W. Kenney II

Carl was named the best serious columnist of 2011 by the North Carolina Press Association for his work with the News & Observer's community paper The Durham News and in 2016 by the Missouri Press Association for his columns in the Columbia Missourian. He is a columnist with the News & Observer and Co-Executive Producer of "God of the Oppressed" an upcoming documentary film on black liberation theology. He is a former Adjunct Professor at the University of Missouri - School of Journalism and Adjunct Instructor at Duke University, the Center for Documentary Studies. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He furthered his education at Duke University and attained a Master of Divinity. He was named a Fellow in Pastoral Leadership Development at the Princeton Theological Seminary on May 14, 2005. He is a freelance writer with his commentary appearing in The Washington Post, Religious News Services,The Independent Weekly and The Durham Herald-Sun. Carl is the author of two novels: “Preacha’ Man” and the sequel “Backslide”.
He has led congregations in Missouri and North Carolina